I know I’ve spent a lot of time  posting about the Royal Order of Jesters, but secret whoremongering (not my word) societies do have a certain fascination.  But Kathleen, my hinterlands correspondent, keeps feeding me great news out of  Buffalo that demands attention.  It’s not my fault.

It appears now that Supreme Court Justice Ronald H. Tills (Ret.), who knows mirth when he sees it, has an unusual reason to select one of the Winnebago women he was bringing to the Jesters’ convention.

A woman who faced drug and prostitution charges in State Supreme Court Justice Ronald H. Tills’ courtroom later accompanied him on an out-of-state trip for a fraternal organization called the Jesters. Investigators are trying to determine whether the woman offered her services as a prostitute at the convention or whether she was just a guest of the judge, who has since retired.

Maybe it happens a lot up there in very cold, very snowy, very lonely Buffalo, that judges and those whom they sentence form deep, long-lasting personal friendships.  It could happen.  I don’t know what the “hot chick” to judge ratio is, but it could be pretty slim pickings if judges aren’t allowed to select from the working girls who come before them.

According to five sources close to the investigation, Tills became personally acquainted with the woman after she served six months of jail time he imposed and while he was still on the bench.

It’s not like Judge Tills didn’t make her do her time first.  Maybe he’s just a believer that she paid her dues to society, and was now entitled to resume her rightful place in the Winnebago.

Authorities and judicial ethics experts said it would be inappropriate for a judge to engage in any sexual relationship with a woman who had previously been sentenced in his courtroom.

Well there’s a shock.  “Authorities and judicial ethics experts” could suck the fun out of anything.  This is why they have no appreciation of serious mirth.  I mean, really, can you imagine a mirthful judicial ethics expert?  And don’t even get me started on “authorities”, with their prune faces all squished up whenever anybody wants to do anything fun at all.

Members of a human trafficking task force are investigating allegations that some of the Buffalo Jesters hired prostitutes — including some who worked in massage parlors — and took them to out-of-state conventions of the Jesters.

Suddenly, it doesn’t sound nearly as mirthful, does it. 

The woman Tills is associated with is described as a West Side resident whom the judge had sentenced after she was arrested on felony charges of selling cocaine, possessing cocaine and offering to commit prostitution with two undercover cops.

The woman took a plea deal, sources said, admitting to a single felony count of attempted sale of cocaine. In February 1998, Tills sentenced her to six months in jail and put her on probation for five years.

In December 2000, the woman was back in Tills’ courtroom, accused of violating her probation. A month later, Tills ordered her to spend 90 days in a drug counseling program, sources said. 

She later got a job as a cleaner in the Erie County Courthouse on Franklin Street, where her duties included cleaning Tills’ courtroom and chambers. According to a worker at the courthouse and five sources familiar with the investigation, the woman frequently visited with Tills in his court chambers.

While others can debate whether prostitution is a victimless crime, or should be legalized, this really isn’t about prostitution anymore.  It’s about a judge who appears to have abused the authority of his office to take advantage of a defendant whose life was placed in his hands, and of whom he took huge advantage. 

Together with this law secretary and the police captain, all on their mirthful way to the Jesters convention, with these women in tow.  Perhaps these women were happy to join them, it being a better gig than the street or massage parlor, and not a whole lot different than joining the judge “in chambers” from time to time.

Sometimes I think I’m as pruny as those “authorities” and “judicial ethics experts.”  But I still have this bone in my head that expects judges to show a modicum of integrity.  Heck, I think everyone should.